HRC ranked each company on several gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender workplace policies and assigned a
rating from 0- to 100- percent.

Companies with a perfect score receive
the group's coveted Best Places to work for LGBT Equality
designation.

“This will go down in history as the
year that corporate support for equality left the boardroom and
reached each and every corner of this country,” HRC President Chad
Griffin said in a statement. “Not only do fair-minded companies
guarantee fair treatment to millions of LGBT employees in all 50
states, but now those same companies are fighting for full legal
equality in state legislatures, in the halls of Congress and before
the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Verizon and Wal-Mart greatly increased
their presence. Two years ago, Verizon scored only 20 percent.
Wal-Mart, which recently announced it would offer benefits to the
spouses of gay workers, increased from 60 to 80 percent.

Berkshire Hathaway's score decreased
from 15 percent two years ago to zero. Exxon Mobil Corp. once again
received a -25 percent score.

The report found that more than
two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies and 90 percent of all large
corporations it surveyed have extended benefits to the spouses of gay
workers.

A record number of companies have added
transgender protections to their workplace policies. They include 61
percent of the Fortune 500 and 86 percent of the 737 companies
surveyed.